The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 13, November, 1858: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 13, November, 1858: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
We are inclined to think that a too amiable willingness to be kicked
has been generally considered "just cause of war as between foreign
governments,"--especially on the part of the stronger of the two.
History seems to show this,--and also, that the sooner a nation gets
over its eccentric partiality for this kind of appeal to its
reasoning faculty, the more likely it is to avoid the risks of war.
At any rate, the forbearance of the South has been such, that, in
spite of the great temptation, she has hitherto refrained from
sending her fleets and armies northward, and we are glad to find
that Mr. Cushing is inclined to take a cheerful view of the
permanency of our institutions. He tells us, it is true, in one place,
that the success of the Republican Party would be "the _de facto_
dissolution of the Union"; but in a moment of calmer reflection he
assures us that there are thirty million Americans who stand ready
"to devour and swallow up" the "handful of negrophilist Union-haters."
We have great faith in the capacity of the American people, yet we
somewhat doubt whether any one of them could swallow up what he had
already devoured, unless, indeed, he performed that feat which has
hitherto been the opprobrium of Jack-puddings, and jumped down his
own throat afterwards. However, a man of Mr. Cushing's warmth of
nature might well find himself carried beyond the regions of
ordinary rhetoric in contemplating so beautiful and affecting a
vision, and it is enough that we have the consolation of knowing
that he either spoke with a disregard of the census, which we cannot
believe possible in one so remarkable for accuracy of statement, or
that he acquits every man, woman, and child in the country of any
hostility to the Union. It is cheering to have this matter set
finally at rest by so eminent an authority, and we are particularly
glad that the necessity for so painful an experiment in swallowing
is a great way off; for, though a "handful" would not go far among so
many, yet, if its components be as unpleasant as Mr. Cushing
represents them, it would certainly give a colic to every patriot
who got a bite. After so generous an exculpation of the American
people from any desire to pull their own house about their ears, we
are left to conclude that the only real danger to be apprehended, in
case of a Republican success, is a _de facto_ and _de jure_
dissolution of that union between certain placemen and their places
which has lasted so long that they have come to look on it as
something Constitutional. When that day is likely to arrive, we
shall see such samples of consistency, and such instances of stable
conviction, in finding out on which side of their bread the butter
lies, as cannot fail to gratify even Mr. Cushing himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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